A former junior shooting champion who was tipped for Olympic glory has been jailed for 12 years for selling GUNS and ammunition.
Connor Guyatt, now 24, won a clutch of national clay pigeon shooting medals in his teens.
But he was jailed last Friday after turning his rented home in St Anns, Nottingham, into “an armoury”, a court heard.
Nottingham Crown Court heard that when officers stopped him for a driving offence, they discovered 12 rounds of ammunition and one spent cartridge inside a Gucci bag.
This led detectives to his home where he had been converting deactivated guns and making ammunition.
It is legal to buy and sell deactivated guns if they come with a certificate to prove they have been deactivated.
But Guyatt turned them into weapons that could be fired, and sold them.
He pleaded guilty to possessing a Glock pistol and ammunition with intent to endanger life; ammunition without a firearms certificate; converting an imitation firearm; selling a firearm and ammunition and possessing a knife and drugs.
Jailing him for 12 years, Judge Michael Stokes said: “Those weapons, along with ammunition, are in circulation somewhere.”
The court heard Guyatt stashed the Glock pistol and a loaded magazine containing 25 rounds of 9mm ammunition in a tub of Celebrations chocolates.
Prosecutor Jon Foundation told the court: “It was an armourer’s that was there ready to go if needed.”
There was evidence that two more deactivated Glock pistols had been converted but they were never found.
Guyatt went shooting regularly with his father when he was a youngster.
He left school at 16 and trained to be an electrician before helping his mother with property development.
Throughout his teens Guyatt continued his shooting practice and was tipped to be in line with a chance of making the British Olympic team.
He had no previous convictions and gave no comment in police interviews.
After the hearing, Detective Sergeant John Armstrong, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “He was essentially running an illicit manufacturing enterprise, possessing all the relevant component parts and tools to potentially make thousands of rounds of ammunition.
“To convert a deactivated weapon into a fully functioning illegal gun using live ammunition requires a lot of effort and planning. It is underhanded and it is dangerous.
“The deactivated Glock that Guyatt had converted was once again a lethal weapon. To have it loaded in a sweet tin in the living room is beyond irresponsible.
“For reasons only known to himself, he decided to go rogue, using his specialised skills for crime and bringing deadly guns to Nottinghamshire.
“Guyatt, now a father, had ambitions to go to the Olympics. But now he’s in jail and will certainly never be able to gain a licence to compete again.”
